Horseshoe Lake

Today was a rare day.  It was one of the very few days when my dad, my brother, and I were all off of work.  Mom and Dad decided to go on a drive to nearby Horseshoe Lake in Illinois.
It had been a while since we had all gone out there, probably around six years.

The lake is more or less a small swamp, complete with cypress trees and stagnant water. ;)

Cypress trees are always cool to see.  They grow in relatively stagnant water about two to three feet deep.

We stopped at a good lookout point, complete with a mini pier!
We had a great time, until my second brother noticed this:

 The top of the deck was just fine, but those support beams looked a little sketchy!

I tried a little forced perspective with my point-and-shoot Nikon.  What do you think?

A little farther on down the road the lake changed into a huge pool of gigantic lilypads.  It reminded me of the end of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" when the children are boating through a sea of white waterlilies. 

At this point my camera battery was dying, so I quickly snapped a picture of this tiny fairy-like scene.  

God bless!